MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2 (Paramount) Starring: Tom Cruise, Dougray Scott, Thandie Newton, Ving Rhames, Richard Roxburgh, John Polson, Brendan Gleeson, Rade Sherbedgia. Screenplay: Robert Towne, from a story by Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga. Producers: Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner. Director: John Woo. MPAA Rating: PG-13 (violence, adult themes) Running Time: 125 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
If I didn't know any better, I'd swear Tom Cruise was trying to steal a franchise out from under Pierce Brosnan. Take a look at MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2 for a moment, and see if the elements don't sound familiar: A government agent on a dangerous mission. A villain with a dastardly plot. A beautiful romantic interest. International locations. Stunts, action sequences and high-tech gadgetry a-plenty. The James Bond series may be healthier than ever after the $125 million success of THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, but that doesn't mean a new kid on the block might not be interested at taking a poke at 007's 35-year stranglehold on espionage-as-big-budget-entertainment. Add a phenomenally talented action director like John Woo to the mix, and maybe its time to ask Q for a little Cruise control on the old Aston-Martin. Right?
Not at all, as it turns out. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2 finds Cruise's Impossible Mission Force agent Ethan Hunt called on to recover a valuable package nabbed by renegade IMF operative Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott). To help suss out Ambrose's plan, Hunt recruits Nyah Hall (Thandie Newton), a professional thief who also happens to be Ambrose's ex-mistress. They discover that the package contains the antidote to an Ebola-like super-flu virus called Chimera, developed by a nasty pharmaceutical company to build demand for a cure. Re-teamed with computer expert Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), Hunt has only days before Ambrose threatens the world with the plague of the 21st century.
John Woo's last film was 1997's FACE/OFF, the latest in a long line of films (A BETTER TOMORROW, THE KILLER) that showed the director's gift for mixing outrageous action sequences with strong character content. Don't expect any such complexities from MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2. Robert Towne's script tries to provide an anchor in Hunt's relationship with Nyah, but it materializes so instantaneously that it's impossible to give it any weight or consequence. Dougray Scott, meanwhile, is an effectively nasty villain, but I'll be damned if I could figure out the history between him and Hunt that's supposed to give their tete-a-tete more sock. Anthony Hopkins turns up for a couple of uncredited scenes as Hunt's vaguely menacing new superior, then disappears without any further acknowledgement of his vague menace. And Cruise's Hunt is a great big super-heroic enigma, just a guy who shoots and kicks and rides a pretty mean motorcycle. Every time Woo slows things down for a moment of dramatic significance, it's just a longer time to dwell on the fact that there really isn't any dramatic signficance.
And unfortunately, he slows things down for about three-quarters of the film. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2 still could have been a great ride with plenty of that trademark Woo action, and it gets off to a rousing start with a sequence showcasing Hunt doing a little recreational rock-climing. Then the film shudders to a stop, and doesn't hit the gas again for over an hour. Once it does get going again, it doesn't really stop until the closing credits -- there are whiz-bang car chases, two-guns-a-blazing John Woo shooting matches, slow-mo slugfests and bombs going off like the whole movie was timed to the end of the "1812 Overture." It's great stuff, even if some of the devices are a bit too familiar from Woo's other films, but by the time it finally rolls around it's almost too late. An action film with this much exposition better make the exposition worth our while, or the audience will just end up wondering why it was wasting valuable action time.
The original 1996 MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE was nobody's idea of classic cinema, but it did have that undeniably nerve-wracking computer room break-in sequence to go with its high-energy finale. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2 nods to that highlight in yet another break-in sequence, along with a nice gag about Hunt's preferred operational style. I had hoped for more than homage to a mediocre blockbuster from John Woo -- something with its own show-stopping set pieces and a compelling story to boot. But ultimately, there's no financial point to cooking up brilliant storytelling for a franchise, because people will come no matter what the film is "about." That's why Brosnan, MGM and the estate of Ian Fleming can rest easy that there will always be a market for their films, the Tom Cruises of the world be hanged. There's enough furiously paced Woo action in the final forty minutes to keep MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2 from crashing and burning; there's just not enough to make it anything special, nor enough depth to the story to fill in the blanks between chases. Anyone who's followed Woo's career knows he's better than this material, but maybe there's only so much even a gifted film-maker can do with a product that's first and foremost about a brand name. The name on the director's chair can only get in the way.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 impossible dreams: 5.
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